Connected to Chicago: "From the WLS (AM 890) newsroom Bill Cameron brings you this week's media panel of Ray Long of the Chicago Tribune, Dan Mihalopoulos of Chicago News Cooperative and WLS newsman John Dempsey. They the failure of Alexi Giannoulias' family bank. How will this effect his campaign for U.S. Senate from Illinois? Also, with the immigration bill being passed in Arizona, how does this effect the rest of the country? Monica DeSantis runs a report on the immigration rallies in and around the Chicagoland area. What does Illinois Congressman Luis Gutierrez think about the immigration reform bill? White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emaunel was in town this week...what kind of Mayor would he be if elected in Chicago? And finally did Mayor Daley get a win this week in Springfield on the gun control issue?" (mp3 file)

The month-in-review from WBEZ-FM 91.5: "Financial troubles, more corruption allegations and more death and violence dominated the local headlines this month. But will April Showers turn to May flowers? Here to remind us of the month that was and what could be is a panel of Chicago journalists. James Warren is a columnist for the Chicago News Cooperative, Esther Cepeda authors the blog, 600words, and Kyra Kyles is a reporter for the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye." (mp3 link)

And Chicago Tonight, the Week in Review: "Joel (Weisman) and his panel (Bob Crawford, WBBM AM 780,
Jesse Rogers, ESPN,
Fernando Diaz, Hoy Chicago,
David Greising, Chicago News Cooperative) discuss the week’s top headlines: President Obama gives a boost to the Giannoulias campaign during a visit to Illinois this week; Mayor Daley balks at the suggestion of sending in the National Guard to help police Chicago’s deadly streets; United and Continental Airlines are reportedly close to striking a mega-merger deal; immigration protests are planned in Chicago and across the country this weekend; Wal-Mart is going to meet face to face with organized labor about its proposed Chicago expansion plans; and the Blackhawks advance to the conference semifinals against the Vancouver Canucks."

In comments on today's column, reader PJW asks, "Is it true Indiana has a balanced budget with no deficit? If so, how did they do it?"

Answer: The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities says no, Indiana is running a $309 million deficit (the same table shows Illinois running only a $5 billion deficit).

But in poking around I found thisTax Foundation table that shows Illinois ranked 30th among all 50 states plus the District of Columbia in overall state/local tax burdens in 2008, the latest year listed, with a 9.3% rate. Indiana was 28th with a 9.4% rate. The national average is 9.7%

How bad have things gotten over the last two decades? Why, In 1977, the first year for the rankings, we were also 30th, but with a 9.9% effective rate.

Raise taxes? Just under 10 percent of respondents to a recent poll commissioned by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University (click here for .pdf file of results) said they liked that option alone.

A little more than 60 percent said they preferred "cutting waste and inefficiency in government." Another 24 percent registered support for a combination of the two approaches to "fix the deficit."

Here's where it gets interesting. When the pollsters asked the 400 respondents — all registered voters in the southern part of the state — which major areas lawmakers should cut, their answer was: Nowhere.

All right, what about cutting back "public safety, such as state police and prison operations?" Oh no, said 79 percent of the respondents.

How about "natural resources, such as state parks or environmental regulation?" No, don't cut that, 58 percent said.

Meanwhile, majorities opposed every suggested way to increase revenue, including expanding legalized gambling.

These voters are "big babies," as political journalist Michael Kinsley wrote in the introduction of his 1995 book with that title: "They make flagrantly incompatible demands — cut my taxes, preserve my benefits, balance the budget — and then explode in self-righteous outrage when politicians fail to deliver."

A nicer term of art for such people is "symbolic conservatives and operational liberals," said retired SIU political scientist John Jackson, now a visiting professor at the Simon Institute. "I read most of the major polls routinely," he said. "And my long-term reading of those polls certainly seems to indicate that we want it all while damning the government and taxes."

Thursday, April 29, 2010

To judge by these public opinion polls in April so far, the public is not warming to the new health-care reform law now that it's been passed, as I and others confidently predicted:

Quinnipiac University Poll. April 14-19:

Do you approve or disapprove of the federal health care overhaul?"

Approve 39% Disapprove 53 %

Kaiser Family Foundation Kaiser Health Tracking Poll. April 9-14,

Given what you know about the new health reform law, (what is your) opinion of it? Very Favorable 23%Somewhat favorable 23 % (46% total favorable)Somewhat unfavorable 10% Very unfavorable 30% (40% total favorable)

AP-GfK Poll conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media. April 7-12

In general, do you support (or) oppose… the health care reforms?"April 7-12 -- Support 39% Oppose 50%March 3-8-- Support 41% Oppose 43%

Gallup Poll. April 8-11

"Do you think it is a good thing or a bad thing that Congress passed this legislation?"April 8-11 Good thing 45% Bad thing 49%March 26-28 Good thing 47% Bad thing 50%

FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll. April 6-7

Based on what you know, do you favor or oppose the new health care law?"April 6-7 Favor 39% Oppose 54% March 16-17 Favor 35% Oppose 55%

Pew Research Center Poll. April 1-5

"Do you approve or disapprove of the health care legislation passed by Barack Obama and Congress last month?" Approve 40%Disapprove 44%

Despite lofty predictions that a broad-based Democratic constituency would be activated by the bill's passage, the bill has been an incontrovertible disaster. ...Put simply, there has been no bounce, for the president or his party, from passing health care.

I know, I know, I should have better things to do with my time than to transcribe radio commercials. But this oddly-timed flu-panic spot sponsored by "the Illinois Department of Public Health and your local health department" caught my ear.

Announcer: Meet Lisa

Woman's voice: I had H1N1. I
almost died. I remember going to the doctor and when he measured my oxygen
level in my blood it was very low, so he had told me I needed to go
straight to the emergency room.
They said I was still conscious, but I don’t remember. They put me in a coma. I was obviously on a ventilator to
help me breathe. I was on dialysis for five weeks. All my muscle was gone. I mean my legs were as big as my arms. It affects people in different ways, and
it just happened to affect me differently. And at the time there were a lot of cases in the ICU along
with me and I kept thinking I could have just had a vaccine and not spent all
that time in the hospital. Why take a chance? Why take a chance and not get it?

Announcer: Protect yourself from H1N1. It’s not too late to
vaccinate. For more information on the H1N1 virus. Visit the web site
ready.illinois.gov.

I did visit that site, and what I found here was this chart, which illustrates that basically no one in Illinois is now getting what we used to call swine flu -- we saw one hospitalization and no deaths in the state in the week ending April 23.

So what gives? I asked Ill. Dept. of Public Health communications manager Kelly Jakubek about it, and here's her reply:

Life can be tough even on a good day, so I believe if you find that person you want to spend the rest of your life with, regardless if you’re gay or straight, it should be honored and celebrated.... State Rep. Deb Mell (D-Chicago), announcing her engagementon the House floor earlier this week.

Quite so. Mell's commitment to her six-year love relationship with her partner Christin Baker juxtaposed with the way so many heterosexuals make a mockery of marriages with their jiffy weddings and quickie divorces ought to stand as a sharp rebuke to those who fret that gay marriage will devalue or trivialize traditional marriage. (AP photo)

Here's the text of a radio commercial now running from something called the Dignity Memorial Network:

Your phone rings, the last thing you expect is your father
calling from his vacation in Mexico. And as soon as you hear his voice you know
something terrible has happened. Your heart sinks, your palms sweat. "It’s your
mother," he says. An auto accident on a coastal road. She’s gone. His voice
cracks. And you try to remember if you’ve ever heard your father cry. You
struggle to speak. You sit down
and begin to worry about how to get both of them home.

Old fashioned of me, I'm sure, but I prefer discreet euphemisms and soft sell in funeral-industry come-ons -- "your time of need" and so on -- to vivid evocations of family tragedies.

Also, really, the last thing you expect is your folks to check in from vacation.

In comments, I invite readers to compose even more disturbing (yet still tasteful) pitches for emergency funeral providers.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

People were telling Giannoulias to get off the ticket four years ago when he ran for treasurer against Speaker Madigan’s choice. He kept moving ahead. After he won that primary, pundits made a huge deal out of the fact that Madigan didn’t seem to want to have anything to do with Giannoulias, and suggestions were made that he’d be better off exiting. He kept moving forward. Last year, all were in a tizzy when the White House brought in a large handful of possible US Senate candidates, including Lisa Madigan, for public wooings. Giannoulias stuck with the plan. Since he won the primary, it’s been an almost non-stop cry for Giannoulias to go.

But he ain’t going anywhere, despite the rumor first spread by Rod Blagojevich that Giannoulias would be moved aside and somebody like Rahm Emanuel would replace him. Pure, utter fantasy. The trouble is, some people want it to be true so much that they can see “evidence” everywhere.

Again, I’m not trying to pick on Zorn, because this “I want it to be true so it will be true because I will help make it so” bias is so prevalent.

Y’all can keep shouting if you want, but I cannot foresee a probable circumstance where he steps aside.

To clarify, I'm not predicting anything, just reformulating the view that I don't detect much enthusiasm for the Giannoulias candidacy from the Obama White House. If there were ever a time for a strong statement of support from the President, this would be it.

I will hang up and listen for my answer.

Miller also reports on the results of a Paul Simon Institute poll of residents of southern Illinois.

Sixty percent think "cutting waste and inefficiency in government" is our way out of the $13 billion budget deficit.

OK. But should we make cuts in K-12 public education funding? Eighty-seven percent said no.

State colleges and universities? Two thirds said no.

Community colleges? Seventy-six percent said no.

All right, then should the state make cuts in "public safety, such as state police and prison operations?" Oh no, said 79% of respondents.

How about "natural resources, such as state parks or environmental regulation?" Fifty-eight percent said, no, don't cut that.

Sixty-four percent opposed a hike in sales taxes, fifty-eight percent opposed a hike in state income taxes and sixty percent opposed expanding sales taxes "to cover services like dry cleaning or haircuts, which are not currently taxed?" FIfty-five percent opposed raising revenues by expanding legalized gambling.

Interpolating these results, it seems that a huge majority of southern Illinois residents, similar, no doubt, to northern Illinoisans, support a visit to the state by the Money Fairy.

A Cook County judge today ruled that a Chicago police officer accused of drunk driving in a fatal crash on Thanksgiving 2007 was arrested and detained without probable cause..... The ruling in effect guts the prosecution's case against (Officer John) Ardelean, who was accused of driving drunk when his vehicle struck a sedan with Miguel Flores, 22, and Eric Lagunas, 21, inside it, killing them. Prosecutors had no immediate comment.

Ardelean, 36, was indicted in September 2008 on charges of reckless homicide and aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol in their deaths.

Prosecutors said after that that their case was hampered by the fact that Ardelean was not administered a Breathalyzer test until about seven hours after the crash.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Q. Could federal prosecutors subpoena Patti Blagojevich to testify against her husband Rod in his upcoming corruption trial?

A. Yes, under the law, they could. The allegations against the former governor contained in the roadmap of the case recently released by the U.S. attorney's office include that crooked financier Antoin "Tony" Rezko funneled about $110,000 to him by paying Patti for real estate work she never did. She would be well situated to testify about that scheme.

The recent efforts in Arizona... threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans.... President Obama, speaking about the law signed last week that requires local police in Arizona "to question people about their immigration status — including asking for identification — if they suspect someone is in the country illegally."

Agreed. A "Show me your papers!" law isn't the answer -- on "Saturday Night
Live," Seth Meyers noted
that every time someone uses that phrase, "Hitler's family gets a
residual check."

But let's remember that what led to the boiling-over of frustrations in Arizona was a long-term, persistent violation of another notion Americans cherish: That laws should not be arbitrarily and unevenly enforced; that they should either be obeyed or changed, not flouted.

One TV pundit put it well the other day (and I paraphrase): For years we've had a "Keep Out!" sign on our borders and then, a few yards away, a "Help Wanted" sign.

Through lax enforcement of employment reporting policies and the borders and by refusing to allow state and local police to assist in enforcement of immigration laws, we've created a huge population of undocumented residents.

How big a problem that is is the subject of extensive debate. But you don't have to come down on either side of that debate to recognize that a society can't have "basic fairness" until it has basic laws that are basically enforced.

With luck, history will record the "show me your papers" law as a catalyst, a demand that forced our nation into a common sense, consistent, realistic immigration policy, and not an outrage.

The tea ladies of the Sudanese capital are widowed, broken, struggling, alone. Thousands of them have fled poverty, escaped wars, buried families; age has crept upon them. Spreading out across the city, dressed in colors that seem robbed from rainbows and peacocks, they tarry in the shade of trees and buildings, next to shoe-shine boys and men selling phone cards, pouring until dusk, hiding their stoves, disappearing with the night.

In Bank failure a nail in Giannoulias’ campaign, Rick Pearson and John Chase report about the White House's evident lack of enthusiasm for the U.S. Senate candidacy of Democratic nominee Alexi Giannoulias, the state Treasurer.

The warning signs came last summer, when Giannoulias found the White House working to recruit other candidates despite his public intentions to run for the Senate.

The Giannoulias camp didn't get a heads up about Obama's next scheduled visit to his home state, in downstate Quincy next week, and has been seeking a much warmer endorsement from the White House since winning the Feb. 2 primary. Giannoulias said he would not go to Quincy but offered no reason other than "it was not on our schedule."

Not on your schedule? Right. The President of the United States, your former basketball buddy, comes to your home state during campaign season and doesn't invite you to join him waving to the crowds? (Update -- the Giannoulias campaign tells me he has since been invited "as Treasurer")

How much more clear does President Obama have to make it that he'd be thrilled if Giannoulias did a Jack Ryan and withdrew in order to give the party a mulligan in this key race?

Politico's Ben Smith writes of Friday's failure of Giannoulias' family bank that it's "hard to remember a worse thing happening to a Senate candidate during a campaign" and comments on this new "lemons into lemonade" ad: --

If Alexi Giannoulias pulls this one off, it'll be one for the annals of political history: He's trying to cast the failure of his family's bank - which he ran as recently as four years ago and which failed Friday, the latest casualty of the bad loans in the run-up to the financial crisis -- as a reason to sympathize with him and vote for him.

What surprises me here is the same thing that surprises me about the whole Rod Blagojevich-replacement senator story: Team Obama seems to have an awfully hard time seeing around the next bend in the road.

Obama's election to the presidency was a better than even proposition for most of 2008, yet from everything we've heard, almost no thought was given at any level to doing the advance negotiating and planning that would have resulted in the smooth appointment of a highly-reelectable Democrat to the U.S. Senate seat he would be vacating.

And once Blagojevich appointed the preposterous Roland Burris to succeed Obama, it appears that Democrats top to bottom didn't realize the importance of getting behind a strong, experienced candidate early in the primary process.

Now they have Failed Banker Alexi Giannoulias who's evidently too toxic even to share a stage with the president and too stubborn to take a hint.

Williams, 50, has been doing the six-hour, two-city, back-to-back shifts since April 13, and by all accounts, he’s managed to pull it off amazingly well.
How long will it last? The answer may depend less on Williams’ talent and stamina than on the precariousness of his situation at the Tribune Co.-owned news/talk station.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

This week's "Capitol View" from Springfield featuring Bernie Schoenburg of the State Journal-Register, Melissa Hahn of the Illinois Radio Network, Bob Gough of the Quincy News and Benjamin Yount of Illinois Statehouse News:

Long ago I warned that if Barack Obama didn't get under control his tendency to fill his non-scripted remarks with "uh's" and "ah's," he was going to get a reputation for it.

[Obama's] verbal tic of filling tiny moments of silence with "uh" was on my last nerve by the end of the hour (wags will nickname him "Barack Uh-bama" if he doesn't work on this)...Change of Subject, Oct 22, 2004

I don’t believe that the way the president is
defining failure or success jibes with reality...Ill.
Sen. Barack Obama to ABC’s Terry Moran on “Nightline” Wednesday
following President Bush’s speech on Iraq.

Only that’s not exactly what Obama said. Exactly what he said was
this: “Uh, I-I don’t believe that uh, the way the president is
defining failure , uh, or success, uh, jibes with reality.” (Listen to
this seven sound clip)... Change of Subject Jan 12, 2007

Last night, I noticed that "Saturday Night Live" parodist Fred Armisen was liberally sprinkling uh's and ah's into his Obama impersonation:

About "Change of Subject."

"Change of Subject" by Chicago Tribune op-ed columnist Eric Zorn contains observations, reports, tips, referrals and tirades, though not necessarily in that order. Links will tend to expire, so seize the day. For an archive of Zorn's latest Tribune columns click here. An explanation of the title of this blog is here. If you have other questions, suggestions or comments, send e-mail to ericzorn at gmail.com.
More about Eric Zorn

Contributing editor Jessica Reynolds is a 2012 graduate of Loyola University Chicago and is the coordinator of the Tribune's editorial board. She can be reached at jreynolds at tribune.com.